id:			320421
accession number:	2018.1057
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.1057
updated:		2023-03-22 03:05:21.373000

Chiaroscuro, 1972–81. Ralph Gibson (American, 1939-). Portfolio of 15 gelatin silver prints; overall: 30.5 x 40.6 cm (12 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Alan and Monah L. Gettner 2018.1057

title:				Chiaroscuro
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1972–81
creation date earliest:		1972
creation date latest:		1981
current location:		
creditline:			Gift of Alan and Monah L. Gettner
copyright:			

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culture:	America, 20th century
technique:	Portfolio of 15 gelatin silver prints
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - American 1951-Present
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Ralph Gibson (American, 1939-)  - artist
Ralph Gibson American, 1939-

Ralph Gibson is best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through surreal juxtaposition and contextualization. Characteristic of his sensibility is a trilogy, The Somnambulist (1970), Déjà-Vu (1973), and Days at Sea (1975), published by Lustrum Press, which Gibson founded in 1969. Other titles from his more than 15 published monographs include Syntax (1983), Tropism (1987), L'Anonyme (1987), and L'Histoire de France (1991), with an introduction by Marguerite Duras.
	Born in Los Angeles, Gibson took up photography while serving in the U.S. Navy (1956–60), studied at the San Francisco Art Institute (1960–62), and later worked as an assistant to both Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank. With Frank, Gibson worked on the film Me and My Brother (1967–69) and as cameraman on Conversations in Vermont (1969). That same year he moved to New York City, where he established a studio and his press. Gibson has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1975) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985), a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (daad) Exchange, Berlin (1977), a New York Creative Artists Public Service Grant (1977), and a Grande Medaille de la Ville d'Arles (1994). He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (1986) and awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland (1991). Gibson divides his time between New York and France. A.W.
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measurements: Overall: 30.5 x 40.6 cm (12 x 16 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Alan and Monah L. Gettner, New York, NY
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	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: December 3, 2018
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fun fact:
Ralph Gibson was randomly selected to learn photography on his first day in boot camp in the navy, which he entered at age sixteen.

digital description:
Gibson assembled 15 of his photographs into a portfolio he called <em>Chiaroscuro</em>, because all of the images explore sharp contrasts of brightness and shadow created by light that falls unevenly or from a single direction on an object or scene. Often dreamlike in nature, the images while firmly rooted in reality, also explore abstraction.

wall description:

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Gibson, Ralph. Syntax. New York, NY: Lustrum Press, 1983.
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	Gibson, Ralph. Tropism: Photographs. 1987.
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IMAGES